Injustice: Gods Among Us aims to bring comic book movie experience to gaming

Injustice: Gods Among Us aims for cinematic experience

The Joker is dead.

Or is he?

Concrete crumbles in the small holding cell as Batman lands on the floor. His ever-smiling nemesis, the Joker, chuckles away to himself in the background. The Caped Crusader struggles to get to his feet as the Joker is lifted off his own.

Meanwhile, Superman is at his wits’ end with the clown-faced villain who just caused the death of Lois Lane and his son. The Man of Steel wants answers, but the Joker isn’t in the mood for talking. Superman’s eyes blaze with anger as if with the fires of an atomic blast.

The story of NetherRealm Studio’s Injustice: Gods Among Us begins after the city of Metropolis has been leveled by an atomic bomb. The heroes of the game are left to pick up the pieces and help repair the devastation.

There have been superhero games before, but for the team at NetherRealm Studio, Injustice was a chance to tell a deep and engaging story for gamers and comic book lovers alike.

“From day one, the word has been ‘cinematic’,” NetherRealm senior producer Adam Urbano said during an interview in downtown Toronto’s Distillery District.

“The way everything looks, the way everything behaves, is powerful and realistic, and that has been our number one mantra. We wanted to create a cinematic experience for everyone, not just hardcore fans and not just comic fans, but for everyone.”

This new game created by NetherRealm Studios — best known for developing the classic gory and brutal but beautiful Mortal Kombat released in 2011 — is a player-versus-player fighting game that incorporates characters from the DC Comics universe. Player can choose from the most famous superheroes in the DC canon, from Batman to the Green Arrow, and The Flash to Wonder Woman — each available to fight through a campaign mode or in competitive one-on-one fights.

As well, a number of supervillains are available for players to dole out serious damage. The Joker has found a place as one of the game’s central personalities, but other supervillains including Lex Luthor, Doomsday, and the Joker’s main squeeze Harley Quinn all make appearances in the game. As well, the studio has made an effort to incorporate characters with whom players might not be too familiar.

Of course, since many of these characters are now featured in popular TV shows and movies, the question becomes which of the actors who have become synonymous with their characters have lent their voice talents to the game.

While Arrow star Stephen Amell will also be joining the cast reprising his role as the Green Arrow, Mark Hamill has not reprised his role as The Joker, a character he has voiced for many years including in the recent Arkham series of Batman games.

A Mortal Kombat legacy

NetherRealm Studio has taken away some lessons from their release of Mortal Kombat. The studio has taken some time to reach out to players to find out what they want to see in the new game.

“One of the key lessons we took in from the community of this game was making the game a little more accessible,” Mr. Urbano said. “Especially at the lower level, for people who don’t know fighting games, because that is who is going to be our audience for at least the DC portion.”

The studio wanted to make a game that was accessible for all audiences so that players of all kinds can enjoy the story they are telling in the campaign mode. Mr. Urbano insisted that while it will be easy for players to engross themselves in the game, there will still be a complex meta-game for competitive players to explore.

Mr. Urbano says a large part of the game is spent educating the player on how to use the fighting game’s mechanics. In order to make this process a little easier, they appealed to the fighting game community for their input.

The studio has allowed players to have their say in the game’s development by asking questions and scouring forums for their input. They have also brought in some professional players to try out Injustice: Gods Among Us in order to make the game ready for Evolution 2013, an international fighting game competition.

“We brought in over the past two months dozens and dozens and dozens of pro players,” Mr. Urbano said. “We were amazed at the things they could do that we weren’t even expecting.”

With a “T” for Teen rating, however, don’t expect to see Superman using his laser eyes for anything more than stunning his opponents.

Turning a comic book fighting game into a cinematic experience

NetherRealm Studios has made an effort to create each level of the game with cinematic experience in mind. The environments surrounding the superheroes and super villains are interactive; cars can be thrown, rockets can be fired, and buildings can be bashed through with the flying body of a combatant.

There are also some pretty wacky interactive objects in some of the levels.

“Arkham Asylum has this giant pig corpse hanging from a hook and players can sling it back and forth and hit each other along this great chain,” Mr. Urbano said stifling a little laughter.

“Some are straightforward as a car that can be slammed, some are as crazy as a pig that is being thrown across the level.”

This cinematic experiences they are bringing to players will also extend into the single-player campaign. Mini-games will be scattered throughout the story. In one section, Batman must throw batarangs at Lex Luthor to take him down.

Mr. Urbano insists that these games are fun and won’t take the player out of the action.

As for how The Joker — a mere mortal — could take down Superman in a fight? Mr. Urbano says that’s still a secret.

“There’s a very specific thing we do to make that make sense,” Mr. Urbano said.

“So I don’t want to give it away because its part of the story. It’s cool, it makes sense, and it answers the question, ‘How do you beat superman?’”

According to Mr. Urbano some of the characters have Kryptonite-infused weapons, but not every superpowered superhero has an allergy to the green stuff.

There could be even more superheroes set to join the ranks of Injustice, if Mr. Urbano has his way.